Morocco: the popular movement in the Rif suppressed

For
nearly nine months now, the Al Hoceima region in north east Morocco
has been the
scene of ongoing popular
protests.العربية

Moroccans take part in a demonstration against official abuses and corruption in the town of Al-Hoceima, Morocco early June 3, 2017. Picture by YOUSSEF BOUDLAL/Reuters/PA Images. All rights reservedThe
protests began on
the night
of Mohsin Fikri's death, and
soon
turned into a popular movement. Mohsin
Fikri, was
a
fish seller killed
in a garbage
container by
the authorities on
October 28, 2016. This incident was the first spark for
a wide popular movement, in which various segments of society have
participated. The
movement has
and continues to call for peaceful protest.

After
authorities
confiscated
his goods and
threw them into the garbage truck,
the
fish seller climbed into the truck to retrieve it where he was
crushed
without mercy as
a video that
circulated online shows.

Immediately
after, the
hashtag
#Than_Mo (crush him!)
was
widely used on
social media, referring
to what the policeman in the video says as he orders the garbage
truck to crush the fish seller.
Those
involved
were sentenced to
only
8 months in
prison in
a case in which a citizen was brutally killed by the authorities.
This
verdict
was
deemed
unfair
by
a large segments of the
Moroccan public opinion.

The
incident of the fish seller exposed corruption in
the country and increased the pressure already
present in the
region. Al
Hoceima, and the Rif in general suffer
from marginalization at various levels. This made the demands for
an end to the marginalization
of the region find
immediate resonance among the public.

With
time Nasser
Zafzafi emerged
as
a
symbol of the movement. Zafzafi
along with some of the victim’s friends, had gone to the local
governors house at midnight demanding an immediate investigation into
the murder.

The
peaceful popular movement in Al Hoceima and its surroundings
repeated
the
slogan: freedom, dignity, and
social
justice. However, the current Moroccan
government, formed in April, was
not responding to the calls from the streets.

A
committee from the popular movement
drafted
demands that include a number of
legitimate social and economic demands needed
in
the region, such as health
care, education and the completion of already promised projects.
However, these
demands are yet to be met with the government still negotiating.

The
protests were
met with repression.
Since
the beginning, a
number of activists have been arrested. Protests were to take place
during the month of Ramadan. On the 26th
of May, a day before the start of Ramadan, sermons
were
read
in the
mosques
in Al-Hoceima city calling
for a halt of the protests saying that these would constitute an act
of sedition.

These
sermons
provoked the Nasser Zafzafi
to confront the
speaker and this
move prompted
the authorities to issue an arrest warrant against
him. Soon after,
he
was joined by a
group of activists such as Mohammad Al Asrihi, who was covering the
news of the movement on
the news website Rif24
and
Salima Al Zayani who was the only woman
in the popular movement committee since its beginning in November
2016. Some of the detainees
were taken to the city of Casablanca and
held at the Okasha prison while other were kept in the local
prison in Al Hoceima.

The
arrests of the activists increased the tension
on the streets.
People
would go out to the streets on a daily
basis
after
Iftar to
remind the authorities that they
are
not giving up on their demands, and adding two new ones: an end to
the
militarization
of
the
region and the release of all
detainees.
The arrests of the activists were
followed by arbitrary
arrests and the
use
of violence to disperse
the protests.

On
Eid al-Fitr, June 26th,
the families of the detainees were
joined by large numbers of residents of
Al-Hoceima, despite the security cordon around
the city and the
authorities banning
residents from the environs to enter the city. They
went
out to protest the unusual situation in the region: the intensive
military presence and political arrests which increased and
exacerbated the situation. The
authorities responded
with violence,
beating
protesters,
banning transmissions and
arresting
anyone trying to document the violence, and
an excessive use of tear gas.
The number of detainees
reached 150, some of them were released
later.

Before
the arrest of the activists, a
million people’s
march was planned on
20 July,
a
symbolic
date
commemorating
the battle of Anoual, when
Ben Abdelkrim Al-Khattabi won against
the Spanish army in 1921. People
were
adamant on making the
march happen
despite the repression they faced
two days before the organization, and
the
prevention
of
people
from
entering
Al-Hoceima
to participate in the march.

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